Other notable deaths

Vic Ramos, the casting director for Francis Ford Coppola on The Godfather, Part II and Apocalypse Now, and for George Lucas on Star Wars, died Sunday in New York.

Mr. Ramos, who later turned to talent management, died of pulmonary failure at St. Vincent's Hospital, said Sandy Erickson, his partner in New York-based Ramos Management.

"He had great taste and a great eye, and he had a real love for actors," Fred Roos, a producer who worked with Mr. Ramos on the Coppola films, said yesterday. "He was open to the underdog actor who wasn't represented by the biggie and would always find worthy people."

Mr. Ramos is credited with discovering actor Matt Dillon when he cast him in the 1979 film Over the Edge with four other unknowns. An assistant had run into the young Dillon cutting class in junior high, and Mr. Ramos reportedly recognized his potential immediately.

Since founding his agency in 1981, Mr. Ramos had managed Mr. Dillon and a small stable of other actors.

"Vic was a product of Hollywood in the '40s and came from the old school, stressing importance of hard work and honing one's craft," Mr. Dillon said in a statement. "He was a great friend, had a lot of style. He taught me a lot over the years."

Mr. Ramos became a casting director almost by accident after walking into an acting audition for the ABC-TV series Naked City (1958-1963) and commenting that none of the extras looked like people he saw on the streets of New York. He was hired on the spot to cast extras in the popular police drama.

From 1960 to 1981, Mr. Ramos helped cast more than 25 films and television shows, including The Black Stallion; American Gigolo; Dressed to Kill and Thief.

LIM GOH TONG, 90 Malaysia's third-richest man

Lim Goh Tong, Malaysia's third-richest man, died Tuesday, according to a statement from his son, Lim Kok Thay, who took over from his father in 2004 as chief executive of the Genting Group of companies. The statement did not elaborate.

Mr. Lim, a migrant from China, built Genting Highlands, a casino hotel resort that opened in 1971 and flourished into a business empire worth $22 billion. It is the country's only casino and includes five hotels and a theme park.

Forbes magazine listed Mr. Lim among the world's top 250 billionaires in 2006 and the third-richest person in Malaysia with a personal net worth of $4.3 billion.

Mr. Tylo was pronounced dead just before midnight at a home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, authorities said. The cause of death was listed as accidental drowning, according to the Clark County coroner's office.

Ms. Tylo stars on CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful. The 45-year- old actress was in Los Angeles when her son drowned, show representative Eva Demirjian said.

JOHN S. MURRAY, 82 Publisher, state lawmaker

John S. Murray, former president of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association and a state lawmaker for 12 years, died yesterday in Seattle of complications from a stroke and pneumonia.

In 1953, Mr. Murray bought the Queen Anne News and built it into a publishing company that owned several Seattle-area community newspapers and printed dozens of others, including publications in Norwegian and Vietnamese.

Starting in the late 1960s, Mr. Murray, a Republican, was elected to four years in the state House of Representatives and eight years in the state Senate, giving his political views in weekly editorials on the front page of his newspapers in the Seattle's Queen Anne and Magnolia neighborhoods.

An avid climber who scaled the six highest peaks in Washington, he promoted environmental legislation and helped to establish a system of 22 community colleges statewide and the Evergreen State College in Olympia.